Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-06-04
with the men who fought on the sea

OLD FLAGS
ever sincew we were q nation. Grandest
fleet the world ever saw. Sail on be-
fore all ages! Run up all the colors!
Ring all the bells! Yea, open all the
PORTFOLIOS! Unlimber the guns and
load and fire ono great broadside that
shall shake the continents in honor of
peace and the eternity of the American
Union! But | lift my hand, and the
scene has vanished. Many of the ships
have dropped under the crystal pave
ment of the deep, seamonsters swim
ming III and out the forsaken cabin,
and other old craft have swung into the
navy yards and many of the brave
spirits who trod their decks are zone
up TO the Eternal Fortress, from whose
easements and embrasurcs may we not
hope they look down to-day with Joy
upon a nation in reunited brother
Aoodp
AT this annual commemoration | be-
think that most of you who were in the
naval service during our late war are
now in the afternoon or evening of
life. With some of you it is two
o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, six
o'clock, and it will soon be sundown.
If YOU were of age when the war broke
out you are now at least forty-eight.
Many of you have passed into the six
ties and seventies; therefore it is APP
propriate that | hold two great lights
for your illumination-thc example of
Christian admirals c~onsccrated to
Christ and their country.
GUT.
Had the Christian religion been a
cowardly thing they would have had
nothing to do with it. In its faith they
lived and died. In our Brooklyn navy
yard Admiral Foote held prayer-meet-
ings and conducted a revival on the
receiving ship North Carolina, and on
Sabbaths, far out at sea, followed the
chaplain with religious exhortation. In
early life on board the sloop of war
Natchez, impressed by the words of a
Christian sailor, he gave his spare time
for two weeks TO the Bible, and at the
end of that declared openly: Hence
under all circumstances, | will
for Cod His last words, while
dying at the Aston house, New York.
were: II thank God for all His good
ness to me. He has been very good to
me-" When he entered heaven he did
not have t u a blockade, for it was
amid the cheers of a great welcome.
The other
CHRISTIAN ADMIRAL
will be honored until the day when the
fires from above shall lick up the
waters from beneath and there shall be
no more sea.
sob, white old oceans breast
Bears II white sail,
And GOd'S soft stars to rest
Guide through the gale,
Men will him meier forget
Old heart of oak,
Farragut, Farragut,
Thunderbolt stroke!n
According to his own statement
Farragut was very loose in his morals
in early manhood and practiced all
kinds of sin. One day he was called
into the cabin of his father. who was
n ship-master. His father said: david.
what are you going to be anyhow"
He answered: Il am going to follow
the sea" Follow the sea-" said the
father, "and be kicked about the world
and die in a foreign hospital?' NO"
SAID David, Il am going to command
like YOU" mo- said the father, "a
boy of your habits will never command
anything" and his father burst into
tears and left the cabin. From that
day
DAVID FARRAGUT
started on new life. Capt. Penning-
ton. an honored elder of this church,
was with him in most Of his battles and
had his intimate friendship, and he
confirms, what | had heard elsewhere
that Farragut was good and Christian
In every great crisis of life he asked
and obtained the Divine direction
When in Mobile bay the monitor re
cumseh sank from a torpedo and the
great war ship Brooklyn that was to
lead the squadron turned back, he said
he was ut a loss to know whether to
advance or retreat, and he says: Il
pIilcd' bOt, WIZ ClCuJcu man anu
gave him reason, direct me what to do
Shall l 60 on?' And a voice COM
manded me:
GO ON.
and | went on. Was there ever a more
touching Christian letter than that
which he wrote to his wife from his
flagship Hartfordp '.My dearest wife,
l write and leave this letter for you. |
am going into Mobile Bay in the morn
ing, if God is my leader, and hope
He is, and in Him l place my trust. If
He thinks it is the proper place for me
20 die l ain ready to submit to His Will
in that as all other things. God bless
and preserve you, my darling and my
dear boy, if anything should happen to
me-. May His blessings rest upon you,
and your dear mother, and all your
sisters and their children"
Cheerful to the end, he said on board
the ~Tallapossa in the last voyage he
ever took: ut would be well if | died
now in harness." The sublime Episco-
pal service for the dead vas never
more appropriately read thar over his
casket. and well did all the forts Of
New York harbor thunder rs his body